The present invention relates generally to drum foot pedal apparatus which generate a tone by pivoting a beater, in response to depression of a foot board, to thereby strike a drum head or bass drum pad (kick pad) with the beater.
Drum foot pedal apparatus have been known which generate a tone by pivoting a beater, in response to depression of a foot board (foot pedal), to thereby strike a drum head with the head of the beater. The conventionally-known drum foot pedal apparatus, as shown for example in Japanese Patent No. 2806301 (hereinafter referred to as “Patent Literature 1”), include a pivot shaft having the beater mounted thereon, a pair of left and right struts pivotably supporting the pivot shaft, and a transmission member, such as a chain, interconnecting the distal end of the foot board and the pivot shaft. According to the disclosure of Patent Literature 1, a spring (extension or tension coil spring) for normally urging or biasing the foot board toward an initial (non-depressed) position of the foot board is connected to either or both of the opposite ends of the pivot shaft. The spring is engaged at its upper end by a roller, via a link member, that is in turn rotatably supported on a crank arm, and also the spring is engaged at its lower end in a through-hole of an adjusting screw provided for adjusting the tension of the spring.
With such conventionally-known drum foot pedal apparatus, however, repeated depressing operations of the foot board may undesirably cause positional displacement of the drum foot pedal apparatus relative to a floor surface (installing surface) of an installation site. Thus, to prevent such positional displacement of the drum foot pedal apparatus, spike members are attached to or provided on a frame (front frame) section having the left and right strut members. As shown for example in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication NO. HEI-8-95557 (Patent Literature 2), each of the spike members is, for example, in the form of a screw having a gradually tapered and sharpened distal end portion that is projectable downward beyond the lower surface of the frame section. Namely, as the spike members are projected downward beyond the lower surface of the frame section when the foot pedal apparatus is to be installed on an installation site, the distal end portions of the spike members bite into a carpet or the like laid on the floor surface (installing surface) of the installation site to thereby prevent positional displacement of the drum foot pedal apparatus relative to the installing surface. Another example construction of the spike member has also been known in which the spike member provided on a side surface of a heel section of the foot pedal apparatus is pivotable between a retracted position and a projected position.
However, the conventionally-known drum foot pedal apparatus having the spike members as shown in Patent Literature 2 would present the problem that the spike members cannot provide a sufficient lateral-rotational-displacement preventing force, i.e. force for retaining the foot pedal apparatus on the installing surface against lateral rotational force (i.e., clockwise and counterclockwise, or rightward and leftward, rotational force acting within a plane parallel to the installing surface) produced by depression of the foot board. Particularly, with a foot pedal apparatus of a double-pedal structure including a pair of left and right foot pedals (foot boards), the left foot pedal cannot be retained appropriately enough, because the left foot pedal is supported by being connected to the right foot pedal. The spike member mounted to the side surface of the heel section too cannot appropriately achieve an effect of preventing rotational (clockwise and counterclockwise) positional displacement of the foot pedal apparatus.
Furthermore, with the foot pedal apparatus where the spike member provided on the side surface of the heel section is constructed to be pivotable between the retracted position and the projected position, it is extremely difficult to perform an operation for adjusting a projected amount of the spike member before and during a performance of the drum because operations for projecting and retracting the spike member require a tool and cannot be performed easily from above the upper surface of the foot pedal (foot board).